Rivers of the Central European Highlands and Plains

Behrendt, Horst; Gancarczyk, Aleksandra; Kronvang, Brian; Sandin, Leonard; Stendera, Sonja; Wolter, Christian; Andersen, Hans Estrup; Fischer, Helmut; Hoffmann, C. C.; Nowacki, Franciszek; Schöll, Franz; Svendsen, Lars M.; Bäthe, Jürgen; Friberg, Nikolai; Hachoł, Justyna; Pedersen, Morten Lauge; Scholten, Matthias; Wnuk-Gławdel, Ewa

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-369449-2.00014-x

Cited by 21 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The Elbe originates in the Giant Mountains region in the north of the Czech Republic and has a catchment area of 148 268 km 2 and a total length of 1094 km (Pusch et al, ; IKSE, ). The free‐flowing part of the Elbe begins 38 km upstream of the Czech‐German border, situated 367 km from the source.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting long-term trends and shifts in phytoplankton dynamics in two large rivers

Hardenbicker

Rolinski

Weitere

et al. 2014

Internat. Rev. Hydrobiol.

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Knowledge about long‐term dynamics of phytoplankton in river ecosystems as well as the physical and chemical drivers that potentially control the plankton is essential for predicting future developments, e.g. in response to global climate change. The present study analyzes long‐term trends in phytoplankton biomass and shifts in the timing of phytoplankton spring blooms observed in the large rivers Rhine and Elbe from 1990–2009 and 1994–2009, respectively, and analyzes the factors potentially regulating phytoplankton biomass. While phytoplankton biomass in the Elbe was high (seasonal mean chlorophyll‐a concentration: 62 µg/L) and showed an increasing tendency, it was much lower in the Rhine (seasonal mean chlorophylla concentration: 10 µg/L) where it decreased significantly during the study period. This decrease coincided with an earlier occurrence of the phytoplankton spring maximum. In the Elbe, the timing of low discharge conditions was crucial for the occurrence of the spring bloom, i.e. an earlier end of the discharge maximum was connected with an earlier spring bloom. In the Rhine, we found a positive correlation between the timing of the spring bloom and the end of winter flood flow. The maximum chlorophylla values during the bloom correlated with the timing of maximum light availability in the Rhine. The findings indicate that climate related factors, like discharge or light conditions, have a high potential to regulate phytoplankton spring bloom dynamics in large rivers. Such dependence could be relevant for predicting phytoplankton development under climate change.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting long-term trends and shifts in phytoplankton dynamics in two large rivers

Hardenbicker

Rolinski

Weitere

et al. 2014

Internat. Rev. Hydrobiol.

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“…The Elbe has a catchment area of 148 268 km À2 and a total length of 1094 km (Pusch et al, 2009). The Elbekilometre provided here is counted starting at the Czech-German border, 367 km downstream from the source of the Elbe.…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It changes gradually from a mountain stream with rocky and gravel‐bed sediments in the Czech section, until finally meandering as a sand‐bed river through the lowlands in the German section. In contrast to the Rhine, more pristine areas including connected floodplains and some remaining floodplain forests can be found along the Elbe (Pusch et al ., ). Population density is lower than in the Rhine catchment (113 inhabitants per km −2 in the studied section between the Czech‐German border and the tidal weir at Geesthacht, calculated from ICPER, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A complex flow regime finally prevails in the middle and lower sections of the Rhine, extending from Bingen to the Dutch-German border. By contrast, the flow regime of the Elbe is a pluvial-nival regime, with high discharges mainly occurring in winter (Pusch et al, 2009). For mean discharges and further information, see the section on 'Study sites' under the section on 'Methods'.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Longitudinal Plankton Dynamics in the Rivers Rhine and Elbe

et al. 2015

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We compared the longitudinal plankton development in the two large rivers Rhine and Elbe by means of four Lagrangian sampling campaigns performed within the time span 2009-2011. The campaigns revealed low chlorophyll concentrations in the Rhine along a long river stretch (Rhine-km 170 to 854) with maximum values below 5 μg L À1 in 2010. In contrast, the Elbe (Elbe-km 4 to 582) showed high and longitudinally increasing chlorophyll concentrations with maximal values of 174 μg L À1 in 2009 and 123 μg L À1 in 2011. Additional samples of the benthic bivalves along the river stretches revealed high densities of the filter feeders in the Rhine that could potentially explain losses of plankton production. Their densities in the Elbe were significantly lower, making important losses to benthic filter feeders unlikely. However, strong phytoplankton growth was observed during the sampling campaign in 2011 in the Rhine coinciding with a low discharge event. This resulted in an exceptionally high chlorophyll value of up to 244 μg L À1 in the lower river sections, a value that was not reached in the last two decades of continuous water quality monitoring in the Rhine. Even though we cannot fully explain this phenomenon, it shows that phytoplankton has a high growth potential in the Rhine but is usually controlled by other mechanisms. Tributaries represented an additional and important source of plankton biomass and suspended substances in the Rhine, whereas they primarily diluted the plankton concentrations in the Elbe.

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“…Moreover, only few studies investigated the combined effects and compared measures like developing buffer strips and adapting land‐use or agricultural practices to identify most effective measure combinations (Krause et al ., 2008). The input of fine sediment and siltation have not been adequately considered in the hydromorphological surveys for the pressure and impress analysis although research results indicated that clogging of interstitial spaces due to fine sediment input and altered morphodynamics can be the main bottleneck for fish and invertebrate colonization in gravel bed streams (Niepagenkemper and Meyer, 2002; Pusch et al ., 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and evaluation of large‐scale river restoration planning in Germany to better link river research and management

Kail

Wolter

2011

River Research & Apps

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In December 2008, the draft programmes of measures (PoM) have been published in the EU member states, which list the measures that will be taken to enhance the ecological status of surface and groundwater bodies, and to reach the environmental objectives of the EU-Water Framework Directive (WFD). We have analysed the German PoM to identify the main pressures and the restoration measures water managers planned to implement in streams and rivers. The objective was to evaluate the PoM and to identify the main, practically relevant knowledge gaps in river management on which applied river research should focus on.In general, the selection of measures in the PoM was reasonable. In accordance with the analysis of pressures and impacts in Germany, the PoM focussed on measures addressing morphological alterations and river continuity, and the results indicated that diffuse source pollution and fine sediment input were additional main pressures in Central European streams and rivers. Although point source pollution was not a main pressure in most rivers, respective point source measures have been selected for many water bodies. Apparently, these were so-called basic measures that have to be taken due to other EU-Directives or national laws. Therefore, although in line with the WFD, it seemed doubtful if the point source measures would help to substantially enhance the ecological status. Furthermore, the results indicated that there was a general lack of knowledge on the effect of restoration measures and a specific knowledge gap in how to enhance the ecological state of heavily modified water bodies (HMWB) in the lowland region with a high land-use pressure, which was reflected by the high share of water bodies for which conceptual measures have been selected (e.g. developing management plans).Based on the analysis of the PoM and a literature review, we identified the following, practically relevant knowledge gaps in river management: (i) the morphodynamics of river reaches where natural channel dynamics have been restored, (ii) the combined effect of measures addressing diffuse nutrient and fine sediment input at different spatial scales (e.g. riparian buffer strips and land-use changes), (iii) methods to identify suitable and efficient measures and to define environmental objectives for HMWB and (iv) the effect of measures on less well-studied biological groups like macrophytes and phytoplankton. There is a strong need to summarize recent research results on these issues, to identify the knowledge gaps and research needs in detail, and to make the results of such a comprehensive literature review or meta-analysis available for the next 6-year management cycle and second WFD management plans.

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Rivers of the Central European Highlands and Plains

Cited by 21 publications

References 28 publications

Contrasting long-term trends and shifts in phytoplankton dynamics in two large rivers

Contrasting long-term trends and shifts in phytoplankton dynamics in two large rivers

Longitudinal Plankton Dynamics in the Rivers Rhine and Elbe

Analysis and evaluation of large‐scale river restoration planning in Germany to better link river research and management

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